One Piece Manga Characters Who Look Different In The Anime

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 25, 2024 4 Views 12 Min Read
One Piece Manga Characters Who Look Different In The Anime

Summary

  • Some characters in One Piece may appear differently in the anime than in the manga due to evolving design choices.
  • Minor details, like eye color or costume elements, can be altered in anime adaptations of One Piece characters.
  • Characters like Silvers Rayleigh and Marco had significantly different appearances when first introduced in the anime.

One Piece, like most ongoing anime, is based on a manga that is largely illustrated in black and white. This means, for one reason or another, a character’s colors as the author had envisioned them aren’t readily apparent. Oftentimes, this results in fans and general audiences miscoloring the characters, before the official design is solidified.

Kozuki Oden cuts Kaido

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Although manga illustrators will generally communicate important details to animators, sometimes certain characters are adapted before such details are finalized. In other instances, animators may disregard certain visual aspects of characters once they are designing them. When one considers how often One Piece teases characters prior to them having significant importance, this can happen with somewhat notable characters several times in the series. Below are some examples of when this happened, and the anime adaptation of a character looked very different from their manga inspiration.

5

Silvers Rayleigh

The Dark-Haired King

  • Debut: Chapter 19 (Manga); Episode 8 (Anime)

Silvers Rayleigh was the first mate of Gol D. Roger and consequently was one of the strongest members of the legendary Roger Pirates. Upon retiring to become a coating mechanic, Rayleigh is still interested in molding new talent. He notably kept his eye on Luffy, with Shanks noting the young boy’s similarities to their former captain. Rayleigh eventually took to mentoring Luffy, and remains a formidable fighter in his own right, despite his advanced age.

Despite how essential he is, some fans might not realize that Rayleigh appeared in the anime before Episode 10. In a flashback to his time spent in the Roger Pirates, Buggy reflects on Rayleigh scolding him and Shanks. This seems fairly out of character for the more relaxed ex-pirate often seen, but what really makes him unrecognizable is his physical appearance, which removed his scar, changed his eyeglasses, and colored his hair differently than the design for a younger Rayleigh that would later be established. The narrative also doubles down on Rayleigh being more of a disciplinarian in Roger’s crew, likely due to his own Captain being a bit more free-spirited, and him feeling a need to lay down the law.

All of these choices were likely due to a design for this specific version of Rayleigh not being considered essential or finalized yet. Rayleigh, in the present day, took a while to become properly relevant to the story. The past version of Rayleigh took many more years to be relevant once again. Even though Oda claims this man was meant to always be Roger’s first mate, he likely placed far less emphasis on what would become of his past design at that point in the anime.

4

Miss Valentine

The Green-Eyed Monster

  • Debut: Chapter 110 (Manga); Episode 65 (Anime)

In a somewhat odd example, a minor detail of a character was changed for the anime and has stuck in most adaptations since, despite the original canon not having it. Mikita, also known as Miss Valentine, was a member of the Baroque Works, known for her ability to shift her weight between 1 and 10,000 kilograms, as well as her peppy yet sadistic demeanor. She has been consistently designed with two separate eye colors in the manga and anime. Oda’s original design gives her dark black irises, while the anime opts for a light green. While her irises would normally be one of two colors in the illustrated manga, it is worth noting that Oda keeps them this color even in colored manga illustrations.

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For the most part, her design seems otherwise unchanged aside from this odd, inconsequential detail. Yet it is how little it matters that makes the change that much more confusing. Although, as per usual, the anime is the design most related media defer to, the original design of Miss Valentine still exists as it is in the manga. It is possible that each design merely works better for the character within the context of the medium, especially when one considers that manga is often drawn in black and white.

3

Marco

Barely Resembles Himself

  • Debut: Chapter 234 (Manga); Episode 151 (Anime)

Oda is known for writing in or teasing characters without fully finalized designs. This results in some discrepancies within the manga itself, between teased silhouettes and the characters once they are properly introduced. To a lesser extent, this can happen with characters who are significant in the story but introduced in the background before their proper integration.

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Marco, Whitebeard’s right-hand man, is an example of such a character, debuting roughly 200 chapters before he was actually introduced in the manga. Marco looks unrecognizable in his anime debut, having significantly paler skin, a differently colored outfit, a thicker set of lips which are a separate color from his flesh, and dark hair. His initial revised design also had traces of this cameo, before eventually evolving into the version of the character most fans are familiar with. This same sort of revision in design happened with Jozu, Marco’s crewmate, whose own formal introduction also took a while after his technical debut.

The Whitebeard Pirates in general had to be redesigned for Western audiences, as the swastika-inspired Jolly Roger (a mark reflected in the crew’s ensemble) was more associated with the German Nazi Party than its origins as a more positive symbol in Eastern regions.

2

Capone Pez

His Father’s Son

  • Debut: Chapter 498 (Manga); Episode 392 (Anime)

Capone Bege was a significant character in One Piece, teased to have a greater level of involvement in the story as a member of the Worst Generation. His mafioso design and official color scheme had been fully finalized long before the introduction of his son, Pez. Capone Pez was a child Bege fathered as a result of his marriage with Charlotte Chiffon. Appearance-wise, Pez is largely his father in miniature, wearing a similar hat, being just as heavy set, and even having a five-o-clock shadow. This makes it understandable why an earlier anime design may also take from his father’s color scheme, giving him a similarly black hair color, and a black and green onesie. He also has far less facial hair than the more pronounced stubble of his father.

However, Pez’s official color scheme inverted a lot of these traits. It would take more inspiration from Chiffon, giving him a similar hair color, and a blue onesie, closer to his mother’s coat’s color. That said, it would also revert the stubble into the grayed five-o-clock shadow Bege sports. This design choice was likely made to better communicate that he is still a Charlotte by blood, despite his maintained resemblance to his father.

1

Charlotte Perospero

Blue Period

  • Debut: Chapter 834 (Manga); Episode 795 (Anime)

Charlotte Perospero is an officer in the Big Mom Pirates, as well as Linlin’s eldest child. He has a fairly memorable design, including a gigantic tongue, a large coat, and a hat covered with lollipops. While Perospero was properly introduced early on, his anime debut aired before his official manga color scheme was revealed, which resulted in various discrepancies in his anime design.

Rather than the orange that compliments the yellow, Perospero’s initial design made the snazzy choice of dark blue as a secondary color around his outfit’s white striped ensemble. This meant the lower end of his checkered coat, the candies embedded in his coat’s buttoned area, and his striped hat were all blue and white rather than orange and white. Other notable changes include his nail color, his lollipops, and his bracelets, all of which have been altered to complement the color scheme.

Most of these changes were scrapped along with the official manga colorization. One factor that remained different between the finalized anime and manga designs was the color of his lollipops. The manga depicts him as having a rainbow of colors, while the anime makes them all light green, rather than the magenta color they were before. These monochromatic lollipops are presumably easier to account for when animating than the rainbow color.

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